Overview
- Protests across Iran continue under lethal repression, with widely divergent and unverified death tolls reported, including 12,000 by exiled media and more than 2,500 by activists.
- Internet and telephone shutdowns persist, cutting off families and obstructing independent verification of casualties and arrests.
- President Donald Trump urges Iranians to keep protesting and says help is coming, while regional rivals reportedly advise Washington to hold off on attacking Iran.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he expects the regime may be nearing its end, as Iranian diaspora groups in Germany stage rallies, demand pressure on Tehran, call for lifting internet blocks and halting deportations, and warn of imminent executions flagged by rights groups.
- After the Jan. 3 Berlin power-line sabotage, which a left-wing group claimed in a message police deem authentic, officials including Felor Badenberg and Alexander Dobrindt press for more personnel, digital surveillance powers and tougher infrastructure-protection laws, as a polarized Bundestag debate offers few concrete protection steps.